19/8/2008 Obsessive Compulsive, Heaven's Basement, Disarm & Sign @ The Purple Turtle

Subject	Obsessive Compulsive, Heaven’s Basement, Disarm & Sign
PostedDate	8/19/2008
	Yes, only a few days after the Pure Rawk 'Unleashed And Loaded 3' CD launch at the Purple Turtle and I'm back again. Tonight a couple of the other bands featured on that CD are playing. First on the bill are Manchester's Obsessive Compulsive This lot don't get down to London that often, but their brand of heavy riff-laden goth tinged rock is certainly worth catching. They end with a particularly heavy piece of riffing in a venom filled song called 'In Memory Of... So heavy that the bass player thinks he may have followed through... Next up are Heaven's Basement. They might look familiar... If you are thinking you have seen them before somewhere, you probably have. Although at the time they were called Hurricane Party, or later on Roadstar. For various reasons they are now back with a new name, and all new songs. No - it's not the Muppet Show! If you liked Roadstar or Hurricane Party, then it's pretty fair to say you'll like Heaven's Basement as well. They don't just look exactly the same, they soundexactly the same too. The standard of both showmanship and musicianship is extremely high - they are easily the tightest sounding and most professional looking band of the night. Not to say that the other bands are lacking - there isn't a bad band on the bill tonight. But if you want to party like it's 1984 then this is your band!  Next up are northern glam/punk oiks Disarm - a bunch who look like they'd sell their own grannies for some eyeliner! This is a typical 'take no prisoners' performance from this band! I've yet to see them give anything but a 'full on' show. Tonight the snuff and booze powered Mexborough Marauders seem determined to tear Camden a new arsehole. Disarm are a determined and hard working band with a very 'in your face' attitude, and now they have an album out they seem ready to take things a stage further... Like the other recent Pure Rawk show, tonight's headliners are from Iceland. I don't know what they are putting in the water over there these days, but that country seem to produce more ROCK bands than you'd expect from a sparsely populated island in the Atlantic Ocean. I've got to say that I still don't quite 'get' Sign. I think this is the third or fourth time I've seen them now, but at least they don't seem so much like a Skid Row tribute band now and for tonight at least they've dropped the Skid Row cover. The standard of musicianship is high, but after the previous two acts on tonight's bill Sign don't look like an actual band of musicians who belong together. It's not that they don't play well, but something doesn't quite gel for me and there seems to be something missing. Like Skid Row, they have the effeminate looking pin-up singer who the girls go for - here he practices his scary 'death metal' look to show that he's not just a 'pretty boy'. Seriously though, Zolberg is actually a very good frontman and has the looks and stage presence that a band needs to take it on to the next level. He's also a good singer with a very distinctive voice - he definitely has 'star quality'. There might be no Skid Row songs in the set tonight, but they do throw in a very good version of Maiden's 'Run To The Hills'. I have to admit I am warming to this band slightly, but apart from their charismatic frontman I can't see anything which sets them apart from a hundred other bands. Thanks to Pure Rawk it's been a great night with four excellent bands, a good crowd and a great atmosphere.  I actually tend to enjoy shows like this at smaller venues much more than bigger bands at London's better known corporate rip-off venues. These sort of gigs are top value for money and I never go home feeling like I've been ripped off.